A day after Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy, the founders of the television network, resigned from their positions as directors of the promoter group vehicle RRPR Holding Private Limited, Adani Enterprises announced the resignation of the entire board of directors of NDTV on Wednesday.
The Roys, however, continue to serve on the news channel’s board of directors and still own 32.26 percent of NDTV as promoters.
The main Adani company disclosed the members of RRPR’s board of directors via a stock market filing.
“We would like to tell you that RRPR Holding Private Limited issued 1,990,000 equity shares to VCPL on November 28, 2022, representing 99.50% of the paid-up share capital of RRPR, in response to the Warrant Exercise Notice dated August 23, 2022 that VCPL issued to RRPR. In this regard, VCPL also got a share certificate from RRPR on November 29, 2022.
“Additionally, with effect from November 29, 2022, Sudipta Bhattacharya, Sanjay Pugalia, and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan have been appointed as directors of RRPR. With effect from November 29, 2022, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy have resigned from the RRPR board of directors. As a result, the whole board of directors of RRPR is now made up of Sudipta Bhattacharya, Sanjay Pugalia, and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan, who are also directors on the board of VCPL “according to a stock exchange filing by Adani Enterprises.
At the Adani Group, Pugalia serves as both the company’s CEO and editor-in-chief of media projects.
The Adani Group purchased RRPR, which owned a 29.18% stake in the news network.
A company connected to Reliance Industries granted Roys an interest-free loan in 2009 for more than Rs 400 crore, which was finally repaid by a privately held company called Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd. With the aid of the financing, VCPL was able to convert warrants into RRPR Holdings shares, which had a 29.2% stake in NDTV.
In August, the Adani group acquired VCPL and attempted to convert the warrants into shares. A conversion that handed VCPL a 99.5% share in RRPR Holding was approved earlier this week despite initial opposition from NDTV promoters who claimed they had not been consulted.
After purchasing VCPL, the Adani group announced an open offer to buy a 26% interest in NDTV. On November 22, that deal went live, and it will close on December 5.
53.27 lakh shares, or one-third of the open offer size, have received offers thus far. This is true even when the open offer price is being offered at a significant discount to the stock’s existing price.
The ports-to-energy giant is asking NDTV’s minority investors for up to 1.67 crore shares, or 26% of equity.
Adani group will have a controlling share of slightly over 55% in the event that the open bid is accepted.